1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a mobile communication terminal, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for providing incoming and outgoing call information in a mobile communication terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of communication technology, mobile communication terminals are widely being used. The Mobile communication terminals are communication devices for providing a phone call function while the user is on the move, for example, as mobile phones or personal information terminals.
Mobile communication terminals provide phone call functions and various additional functions. Specifically, mobile communication terminals provide a function for recording and storing incoming and outgoing call information and a function for displaying the incoming and outgoing call information in response to a user request.
For example, mobile communication terminals provide a function for displaying a recent call list of all incoming and outgoing call numbers including recently received call numbers, recently transmitted call numbers, recently missed call numbers and so on in reverse order of incoming and outgoing call occurrence times in response to the user request. Mobile communication terminals also provide a function for displaying a recent incoming call list of recently received call numbers in reverse order of incoming call occurrence times in response to the user request. In addition, mobile communication terminals provide a function for displaying a recent outgoing call list of recently transmitted call numbers in reverse order of outgoing call occurrence times in response to the user request. Mobile communication terminals provide a function for displaying a missed call list of recently missed call numbers in reverse order of missed call occurrence times in response to the user request.
Therefore, users can retrieve recent incoming and outgoing call information through the recent call list, recent incoming call list, recent outgoing call list, and missed call list.
The above-described conventional method for providing incoming and outgoing call information only provides an associated incoming/outgoing call list (e.g., the recent call list, recent incoming call list, recent outgoing call list, missed call list, and so on) on the basis of incoming/outgoing call occurrence times rather than phone numbers. Thus, it is difficult for an incoming/outgoing call history to be viewed at a glance on the basis of call numbers in the conventional method for providing incoming/outgoing call information.
When many incoming/outgoing calls relative to the same phone number occur, the associated phone number is repeatedly displayed many times only according to call occurrence times in the conventional incoming/outgoing call list. In the incoming/outgoing call list in which the number of phone numbers capable of being displayed is limited, other incoming/outgoing call numbers whose number corresponds to the number of repeated phone numbers cannot be displayed. The users may be inconvenienced to view other incoming/outgoing call numbers between repeatedly displayed phone numbers.
In the conventional incoming/outgoing call list, detailed incoming/outgoing call occurrence times relative to the same phone number are separately provided. When a user desires to view detailed incoming/outgoing call information relative to the same phone numbers, the user must select the same phone numbers of the list one by one. For example, when the same phone number is repeatedly displayed on the incoming/outgoing call list many times, the user is inconvenienced because the user must select all the same phone numbers from the first incoming/outgoing call number to the last incoming/outgoing call number one by one in order to view all incoming/outgoing call occurrence times relative to the same phone numbers.
Conventional mobile communication terminals can only store and delete a phone number of the incoming/outgoing call list, but do not provide a menu relative to a phone number of the incoming/outgoing call list. Accordingly, the degree of practical use of the incoming/outgoing call list is low.